We should build a solar lens telescope. By the time we're ready to use it, we'll have a bunch of candidates to point it at.

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PxldLtd 40 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

There's a project that's going well from NASA for this. Still a moonshot but they've progressed through the early stages well so far.

https://www.nasa.gov/general/direct-multipixel-imaging-and-s...

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echelon 7 minutes ago | parent [-]

I wonder about all the extraterrestrial AI swarms that have already imaged earth.

Surely it has happened. They must have all spotted our planet millions of years ago and must be watching us with a continuous high-resolution feed. They've seen our dinosaurs. Their interest will really be piqued when they see us invent electricity, though that might be some time in the future for them.

Perhaps even gravitational lensing is primitive to them. Perhaps they're able to break and manipulate physics and peer directly into our light cone, breaking the speed of light. Perhaps through direct wormholes they're already here - computronium in the very oxygen atoms that surround us. In rock silicates, in the air you breathe, in your hemes, in your brain. Calculating.

But perhaps we're the only intelligent species in the entire universe. That is also a possibility. Some big names in astrophysics, such as David Kipping, suggest strongly that we should not rule out that hypothesis. I find his suggestions haunting and beautiful at the same time. You need to watch his videos, and this is a good start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqEmYU8Y_rI

And finally, it may be that we're all just a historical simulation. Or maybe that's ascribing too much importance to ourselves. Maybe we're just a slop simulation on some AI's plaything, existing for no reason at all.

The scale of the universe fills me with awe. Every time I think about it, my worries about random algo-rage and clickbait fades away to nothing. It deeply contextualizes our short time here.

	▲	imjonse 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>But perhaps we're the only intelligent species in the entire universe. That is also a possibility. Some big names in astrophysics, such as David Kipping, suggest strongly that we should not rule out that hypothesis They may be planted by alien AI to lull us into false sense of security.

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sgt an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In theory we can then get 100 meter resolution on alien worlds. That would be insane.

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mekdoonggi an hour ago | parent [-]

According to AI, an equivalent would be roughly when Google maps shows you 10mi/20km reference scale.

Turning off the labels, aliens would probably assume that the world is naturally full of green stuff that is dealing with some strange grey infestation.

	▲	HPsquared 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		On that scale, we really do look like mold.

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myrmidon an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There is no "building" such a thing. All we could do right now is send the "telescope probe" >500AU away, on the opposite side of the sun from the observation target, then hope it still works 80 years later or so when it gets there.

Edit: My point is that you can't "build" such a thing and later point it somewhere-- you have to fly the camera part of the "telescope" about 3 times as far as voyager 1 went, exactly opposite of your observation target, and it is not gonna stay there for too long either.

As long as we improve rapidly at both drone-building and exoplanet target selection, it is not really gonna be worthwhile because both the drone hardware and the target will be hopelessly obsolete before we even get halfway to the observation point.

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jcims an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The wild thing is that, if I understand it correctly, if you were floating in a spacesuit at the same spot you'd also see that resolution (likely highly distorted) with the naked eye.

	▲	JumpCrisscross 44 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> if you were floating in a spacesuit at the same spot you'd also see that resolution (likely highly distorted) with the naked eye …would you? The lensing would occur right at the apparent surface of the sun.